THE fifteenth century, the century in which King James I reigned and died, has been called the "Golden Age of Scottish Poetry," because of the number of poets who lived and wrote then. And so, although I am only going to speak of one other Scottish poet at present, you must remember that there were at this time many more. But of them all William Dunbar is counted the greatest. And although I do not think you will care to read his poems for a very long time to come, I write about him here both because he was a great poet and because with one of his poems, The Thistle and the Rose, he takes us back, as it were, over the Border into England once more. William Dunbar was perhaps born in 1460 and began his life when James III began his reign. He was of noble family, but there is little to know about his life, and as with Chaucer, what we learn about the man himself we learn chiefly from his writing. We know, however, that he went to the University of St. Andrews, and that it was intended that he should go into the Church. In those days in Scotland there were only two things a gentleman might be - either he must be a soldier or a priest. Dunbar's friends, perhaps seeing that he was fond of books, thought it best to make him a priest. But indeed he had made a better soldier. For a time, however, although he was quite unsuited for such a life, he became a friar. As a preaching friar he wandered far. "For in every town and place Of all England from Berwick to Calais, I have in my habit made good cheer. In friar's weed full fairly have I fleichet,* In it have I in pulpit gone and preached, In Dernton kirk and eke in Canterbury, In it I passed at Dover o'er the ferry Through Picardy, and there the people teached." *Flattered. Dunbar himself knew that he had no calling to be a friar or preacher. He confesses that "As long as I did bear the friar's style In me, God wot, was many wrink and wile, In me was falseness every wight to flatter, Which might be banished by no holy water; I was aye ready all men to beguile."